“We can only blame ourselves,” Kate was saying, her words faint. But then there was a crash of a wave from the shore, so the next sentence, spoken by Jen, was inaudible.
“But you’re right, it’s backfiring on us now.” Kate again. A splash. But not a fun splash. Her tone of voice was heavy and serious. “Look what happened tonight. We need to regroup. Perhaps our plan wasn’t so smart after all.”
“Maybe we need to drop it. We’ve got a good thing going, so why spoil it.” Jen talking.
“No way, we can’t give up now.”
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“Another of her little sayings, funny how many we’ve picked up.”
Dan’s voice now. “She loves talking in ready-made expressions, proverbs and clichés, have you noticed? Endless clichés.”
“Yep, she does. Look before you leap, she loves that one.”
“What about a stitch in time saves nine?”
“Putting all your eggs in one basket, jeez, so corny. Where does she get this stuff from?”
“The pot calling the kettle black, what does that even mean?”
“It means don’t be a hypocrite.”
“The writing’s on the wall.” Kate cackled. “The writing sure is on the wall but she’s too strung out to do anything about it.”
Dan laughed. “She has such a limited imagination of her own. Has to use these dumb sayings.”
“Clichés can be as true as the truth.” Jen now speaking. “Jack Kerouac said something to that effect. He lived round here.”
“Duh, I know that.”
“This never happened.”
“He said that too?”
“Something like that. This never happened. It can be our mantra. Nobody must ever know. Our secret to the grave.”
“I feel badly for her, you know.” Jen.
“Why, because she’s so fucked up?”
“She’s like a child. And she still trusts us. Can’t we go back to the way things were?”
Another seventh wave, smashing over the next thirty seconds of conversation. The voices melded into one; I could hardly even detect who was saying what. My head was still hammering, the pain in my stomach and arms and legs vying for my attention, but I snapped my concentration back to the conversation.
“We don’t know that for sure.”
What do they “not know for sure?”
“Shit, it’s cold when you’re not in the water. Fuck, I need to get back inside.” Jen.
“Did you notice how she’s been gloating over her engagement ring lately?”
“That ring must be worth a fucking fortune.”
“And how she’s dressing like a six-year-old? She even had her hair in pigtails the other day.”
“Kind of sad. I feel badly for her. You guys didn’t have to smash her ankle so hard.” Jen speaking.
I wanted to vomit but swallowed my bile back down. They’d done a full-out Misery on me? Then blamed it on me and my “drinking binge?”
“Don’t feel sorry for her, Jen. Remember what we came for. Remember why we’re here.”
“Gotta keep our focus clear.” Kate. “I’m going inside, I’m freezing my butt off out here.”
I rewound the triplets’ sentences over and over in my tangled thoughts, trying to straighten out the knots:
“Remember why we’re here,” and, “Our plan wasn’t so smart, after all.”
They had a plan, all right, and that plan had been yours truly, all along.
Forty
A sharp laugh awoke me. Voices wafting through the door. The triplets were just outside my room, talking in whispers, peering in on me. I still hadn’t succumbed to one single pill. I felt like a bulldozer had run over my head and body.
“This is getting expensive. And not so easy anymore now that Mom’s stash has run out. We’re up to, like, how many a day now?”
“A lot, dude.”
“I told you, we need to make it real. A daily habit or nobody will believe it. Then, after we get her to sign… you know, she’ll get a little too… dependent. More Americans OD on prescription drugs than even illegal drugs. Last count? Forty-six people a day go down.”
“I don’t like this, you know I don’t.” Jen.
“You want our house back or not?”
“We were all doing so well as a family.”
“Jen, she is not our fucking family, she’s an imposter, when will you register that? And don’t hog the joint, dude, hand it over.”
“An eye for an eye.” Was that’s Kate’s voice? I heard her take a long deep drag and wheeze out a giggle.
Beanie snored soporifically by my feet. The blood in my head pounded. They wanted me dead. With the door open, all I could think about was bolting. But I needed to be smart. Three against one in my